Third Grade LiteracyThird grade is considered the moment in a student’s life when one makes the transition from ‘learning to read’ to ‘reading to learn’. This means that students are no longer learning the sounds of letters or how to sound out a word; instead, they are reading to learn about many different things in the world around them. They might be reading non fiction articles or books to research an animal they are interested in learning more about or reading nonfiction books or websites to learn about the culture of China, or they might be reading a realistic fiction story to enjoy the story, as well as learn how a character deals with her best friend moving away to a new school.

When reading to learn, often, students take in all the the new information they have gathered and then think about what they want to do with that information. This is where the student becomes the ‘teacher’. Students take the information and create a project. They go through the process of choosing the best method of presentation, considering the audience (who they will present to—their classmates? Second graders? Mrs. Hendrickson?) and then they get to work on their project. Projects take many shapes and forms- from Powerpoint presentations to dioramas, to illustrated informational books- the options are endless!

's Unit 1- Building the World of the StoryFocus Skills: Monitoring for Meaning, Determining Importance

Reading Workshop is a time of the day when students are directly taught how to be a ‘strong’ reader. The period might start with students looking at a shared text, reading small parts, and thinking together about ‘what is important’ in that part. Then together, students and teachers name what the author did- this ‘naming what the author did’- allows children to create a list of important places to read carefully. For example, the students’ list might include: read carefully when you notice a strong emotion, read carefully when the character’s problem pops up, read carefully when a character interacts with another character, etc. Once independent reading starts, students work to build reading stamina and practice reading to make meaning. Readers focus on a variety of reading skills such as determining importance, monitoring for meaning, inferring, etc. Most third graders enter the grade reading levels M/N and end the year reading levels O/P.

Through individual reading conferences, guided reading groups, and independent practice, students actively work on becoming stronger readers. Teachers meet with students at least once a week to assess the child's reading through a conference and then teach him/her a specific strategy to work on. In a conference, students receive reading ‘jobs’ to work on until the next conference. Reading jobs are worked on daily, both in school and at home. The student records his/her reading job in various ways—in a reading notebook, on post-its, in a Powerpoint presentation, in a graphic organizer, in a voice recording- the ways to record a reading job are endless! Students also have an opportunity to create book projects that are a reflection of the book or highlight a specific reading skill worked on.

Students who master the focus skills at their independent level will move on to working on other skills such as prediction, inferring, synthesizing, and interpreting the text. When the teacher determines the student is ready, he/she will move on to the next reading level and begin to practice skills present at the next level. As students move up in reading levels, books become more complex and more inferring and interpreting is required.

To support your child at home, you can ask him/her to:

show you their reading job & make sure they are practicing and recording their reading job

talk about their current reading book- Who is the main character? What kind of person is he/she? Can you show me parts in the text that support your character idea? What is he/she struggling with? What is his/her problem? Who are the secondary characters? Are they helping or hurting the main character? How? Did your character change by the end of the story? How? Did he/she ‘grow up a little’? Did he/she learn a lesson?

read aloud to you to practice fluency- making their reading sound smooth and filled with expression

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Unit 2-Nonfiction Reading & Writing UnitThis unit pairs nonfiction reading and writing. Through videos and short nonfiction texts, students explore adaptations animals have developed to survive in their environments. Students learn strategies for reading complex texts. Then they apply these strategies as they research an animal of their choice and write an informational paragraph(s) about the animal’s adaptations.

Animal Adaptation Independent Project: Students use their knowledge from the Non Fiction Reading & Writing Unit to create a project on an independently researched animal. Students create posters, powerpoint presentations or dioramas to teach their classmates about the animal’s habitat, adaptations and how the adaptations help the animal survive. Third graders present these projects in class. They work to present their projects in a way that is engaging and informative-thinking both about their delivery (eye contact, loud speaking voice) and the content of their project(explaining and elaborating on what they learned in their research).

Curriculum Connected Field Trips:During the Animal Adaptation Unit, third graders go on trips that complement their learning. They following trips are planned for the 2018-2019 school year:

The Genovesi Environmental Study Center- Weapons of the Wild: Poison, Armor, Camouflage, Oh My! isan exciting workshop where students discover how organisms are able to survive and thrive by adapting to their environment in many ways. Students see firsthand the fascinating ways in which organisms use natural weaponry to defend themselves, hunt prey, or compete for resources to meet their particular needs within an ecosystem.

The Prospect Park Zoo- ANIMAL DEFENSES & ADAPTATION TOUR: On this trip, students will go on a guided tour of the zoo to discover how all animals need defenses to protect themselves from dangers in the wild! As students walk around the zoo, they are encouraged to be on the lookout for animals with weapons (like horns, sharp teeth and claws) that help in catching prey or protecting their families. Students also discover how animals use coloration, chemicals and amazing behaviors to keep their families safe (and keep from being eaten).

​Unit 3- Character Idea Unit Focus Skills: Inferring- Developing Ideas about Characters across a book, Finding Text Evidence to Support Character Ideas (some students continue to work on the skills from Unit 1- Monitoring for Meaning & Determining Importance)

Our 3rd grade Character Idea Unit teaches students that readers get ideas about characters by paying attention to what characters say, do, and think. We remind students that this is just like in real life! We teach our readers that STRONG character ideas are ones that repeat across the book, not just show up in one place. For example, if we see a character saying, ‘I really want to make a going away present for my friend who is moving’ on page 14, then notice the character sharing her lunch with a student who forgot theirs on page 29, and finally notice the character thinking, I really hope I get to give my friend a big hug to show her how much I am going to miss her on page 44, we can develop the strong idea- ‘The character is compassionate or thoughtful.’ To support students in developing strong character ideas, students are taught vocabulary words they can use to describe characters- character traits. Students have a ‘bank’ of character trait words to pull out and use for support when reading, both at home, and at school.

Character Project: Throughout the unit, students develop ideas about the characters in their books and collect evidence that proves their idea. Students find parts of the text where the character says, does, or thinks something to prove their idea. At the end of the unit, students create a project that represents the character and the traits they have learned about them.

show you his/her reading job & make sure he/she is practicing and recording it.

tell you about the ideas he/she has about the characters in the book. What ideas do you have about the character? Can you show me parts in the text that support your character idea? Is it a strong idea (can you show me more than 2 parts that support it?)

read aloud to you to practice fluency- making their reading sound smooth and filled with expression

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Unit 4- Nonfiction Genre Study with Short TextsAt this point in the year, third graders learn strategies for reading different types of challenging non-fiction texts on a variety of topics- from unusual squirrels to helium blimps to sharks and dinosaurs. They practice using text features, finding the main idea of a text, and noticing the structure of a nonfiction text to help build understanding. They also practice finding the meaning of unknown words and phrases. All the while, students are engrossed in learning about the world around them.

Third graders learn about the four different types of nonfiction texts:

Expository NF (non-fiction with headings and text features)

Narrative NF (non-fiction that reads like a story)

Persuasive NF (non fiction that convinces the reader to do or believe something)

Procedural NF (nonfiction that explains the steps of how to do something- like how to make slime​

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Unit 5- Fiction Genre Study with Short Texts​During this short unit, children read a variety of short fiction texts such realistic fiction, science fiction and fantasy short texts, as well as fables, myths, legends. As they read short fiction texts, they practice using complex text strategies to comprehend the text.